In many instances, passenger vehicles, such as aircraft, buses, trains, ships, and automobiles, include passenger seats with a wide assortment of portable electronic and entertainment options to encourage passengers to remain seated as much as possible during transport for safety, crew mobility, and to enable efficient cabin service. Some passenger seats may provide video and audio entertainment, including television, video games, internet access, and other on-board entertainment (“OBE”) or in-flight entertainment (“IFE”) components. Typically, these entertainment devices are mounted in the seat backs and arm rests of the passenger seats.
With the advent of portable electronic devices (“PEDs”), such as tablet computers, cell phones, smart phones, handheld video game systems, personal digital assistants, palmtop computers, DVD players, data and audio-video media, multi-media enabled devices, and other similar electronic devices, many passengers prefer to use their own PEDs, rather than the OBE or IFE components that are mounted in the passenger seats.
The rate at which PEDs, namely cell phones, portable computers, personal digital assistants (“PDAs”), have been evolving has been exponential. These devices are constantly increasing in functions and decreasing/altering in size, making them more portable and at the same time able to perform more tasks. This evolution has led to passengers carrying their personal information and media on these devices with the expectation of using them while traveling.
To this point, there have been very few examples of the integration of these PEDs into airplane seats in any specific way to the seat, other than providing a location on a tray table, such as a groove to hold the PED, and sometimes a power connection to charge them. Because the mounting location is in the tray table, which must be stowed during certain times during flight, there is still a need for passengers to have a way to “hold” or “store” these PEDs while in flight in a manner that allows the PEDs to be used and enjoyed at any given moment. Furthermore, when the mounting location is a groove, the design inherently limits the thickness of the PEDs that may be secured in that location based on the thickness of the groove. Also, by using the tray table to support the PED, it is not positioned at eye level, which generates discomfort after prolonged periods of time.
Other solutions to date involve attaching case (either provided by airlines or customer-purchased) to the backs of passenger seats as an add-on device. A drawback to this solution is that most cases are not adaptable to a large range of differing sizes and shapes of PEDs (e.g., a case for a cell phone often is not sized to accommodate a tablet or surface computer). For example, the cases offered by one airline can only hold iPads®, so other types of tablets or cellphones are not supported. An example of an improvement on conventional cases is shown in U.S. Publication No. 2011/0278885, wherein a cradle formed of multiple adjustable arms to support PEDs of varying sizes and shapes is configured to mount to a port within a passenger seat, and the connection between the cradle and the port also a power connection, and/or a communications connection to the OBE or IFE system and/or the internet to the PED.
When such cases are provided by the passengers, the passenger is able to ensure that the case will fit his or her device, but cannot be sure that the case will fit all types of passenger seats. As a result, the passenger may be forced to purchase an item that he or she may not be able to use on any other occasion. When provided by the airline, this solution creates the additional problem of having to carry on the plane a large amount of cases to provide for passengers, while also having to ensure that passengers will not take the holders with them after the flight.
In some cases, it may be desirable to provide a way for passengers to connect their PEDs to the OBE or IFE systems, so that they may use their own PEDs in lieu of the OBE or IFE systems. In other cases, it may be desirable to provide a way for passengers to connect their PEDs to the OBE or IFE systems to use in conjunction with the system's video display or to receive power for their PEDs or otherwise.
As a result, there is still a need for a support for PEDs that is always available and adaptable to a wide range of PED sizes, shapes, and thicknesses, and that does not create the need for an extra case or coupling assembly. Such a solution eliminates the need for airlines to provide a large number of cases, which represents additional weight and the need for additional storage space, as well as eliminating the costs for passengers to purchase an additional case for his or her PED. Such a solution also allows passengers to use their PEDs with or without a case, and to make the tray tables available for meals, documents, or any other object, or to allow passengers to stow the tray tables while still having the PEDs securely placed for use and/or viewing.